If you understand the important market problems, you can make a good product. If you understand how important each problem is, for each group of customers, you can make a great product. If you’re new to this series, go back and start at the first article, we’ll wait for you right here.
Category Archives: Requirements gathering
Market Problems – Comparing Products Part 3
Comparing products without an understanding of the important market problems by which to compare the products is a waste of time. This is the third in a series on comparing products - jump back to the introduction if you haven’t already read the previous articles. Go ahead, we’ll wait, then come back.
Everything Old is New Again
A lot of teams that I’ve worked on and with get hung up when thinking about defining requirements for “migration projects” and “system upgrades.” There’s some intangible barrier to being market focused when it comes to improving existing internal systems. Every new product represents a solution to an existing problem. Why do so many projects move forward with teams that are blind to the actual requirements?
Provocateurs Gather the Best Requirements
Ask someone what they want, and they’ll tell you they want a faster horse. Provoke them, and they’ll tell you they have a ‘get there faster’ problem, an ‘equine waste disposal’ problem, and issues with total cost of ownership.
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A Prototype is Worth a Thousand Lines of Code
A picture is worth a thousand words. A prototype is worth a thousand lines of code. Two key elements of product management – and of agile development are elicitation and feedback. Low fidelity artifacts can significantly improve both. Polished, codified prototypes can create problems that prevent you from getting the benefits of communication.
Posted in Agile, Business Analysis, Business Rules, Interaction design, Interface Design, Product Management, Requirements, Requirements gathering, Software development, UX, Uncategorized
Tagged agile interaction, Communication, process prototyping, prototypes, prototyping, uml as prototype
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The High Costs of Building the Wrong Product
As product managers, we talk about creating the right solutions with our products. Understanding the very real problems our customers face, understanding the very real opportunities our markets present, and manifesting that understanding in a product roadmap.
Other than being “not as good,” how expensive is it to build the wrong product?
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Business Goals and Requirements
One of my colleagues got into a debate with one of his colleagues about the differences between goals and requirements. His opponent fired the following salvo: “[That] is not a business requirement in any company of the world…”
What you call your requirements is less important than how you communicate them.
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Most Engaging Articles of 2009
Engagement – that’s what this whole product management blogging thing is about. Check out what Tyner Blain readers found to be the most engaging articles in 2009.
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Stakeholders in a Barrel
There’s really only one way to travel down a waterfall – in a barrel. A lot of people died this way, but some survived. Software projects have been predominantly waterfall projects since the start of software projects. And stakeholders rode down those projects, basically in a barrel. The people riding Niagara Falls 100 years ago didn’t know if they would survive until they got to the end. Stakeholders in waterfall projects don’t know if they will succeed until the end.
An agile project is dependent upon tight interaction (and feedback) with stakeholders.
If you’re running an agile project, and your stakeholders are old-school barrel-riders, how do you make it work?
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Hidden Business Rule Example
A business process is not just a sequence of steps. A business process is a series of decisions and actions. Some decisions are obvious and can be actively managed. Some decisions are hidden, and until you discover them, you can’t manage or improve them. Here is a real-world example of the discovery of a hidden enterprise decision.
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